518 



though no fertile seeds are formed. Pupation occurs about April 

 and lasts about two weeks. The earliest and latest dates of emergence 

 of adults are recorded as 14th April and 15th May, but this may depend 

 on altitude, etc. The adults emerge through oval holes in the scale- 

 head. The life-history is subject to variations, the chief of these 

 being that some larvae take two years to become mature. Natural 

 enemies were not found, although several larvae were attacked by a 

 fungus. This is not however an important factor in the check of 

 this pest, as larvae found in the same cone as those infested with the 

 fungus proved not to be diseased. This beetle is distributed through- 

 out the chir {Pinus longijolia) forests of the W. Almora Forest Division 

 and probably of Kumaon and is found at an altitude range of from 

 3,500 to 6,500 feet. It is most common in open sunny stands. In 

 these districts the damage caused in 1918 and 1919 probably amounted 

 to 40 per cent, or more. 



Laing (F.). a Note on four British Coccids. — Entomologist's Mihly. 

 Mag., London, no. 58, October 1919, pp. 233-234. 



An outbreak oiKermes quercus, L., on oak trees is recorded in Rich- 

 mond Park and at Wnnbledon. Many individuals were heavily 

 parasitised, but the parasite was not identified. 



Orthezia urticae, L., was found on Artemisia maritima at Shoebury- 

 ness, 0. cataphracta, Shaw, amongst beech leaves imder stones near 

 Aberdeen, and Eriopeltis festucae. Boy. , on Festuca ovina. 



DuPOET (M.). Rapports du Sous-Inspecteur des Services Agricoles 

 de rindochine. — Station Entom. de Cho-ganh, nos. 2 & 3, October- 

 December 1918 & January-March 1919 ; Supplements to Bull. 

 Chamhre d'Agric. du Tonkin ei du Nord-Annam, Hanoi, nos. 120 

 & 121, 1918 & 1919, 4 & 7 pp. [Received 7th October 1919.] 



During 1918 further experiments were made with a view to dis- 

 covering other food-plants of the coffee borer, Xylotrechus [quadripes] 

 [see this Review, Ser. A, vii, pp. 50 and 269]. They are apparently 

 not very numerous, but when tests were made with newly- felled or 

 dry logs of some thirty other plants, these were readily chosen by the 

 borers for oviposition, even when placed in the same cage with coffee 

 plants. Teak is undoubtedly a preferred food-plant, quite large 

 trees being attacked. Teak logs are chosen in preference to all others ; 

 living teak is also attacked, but the larvae apparently cannot develop in 

 it. Evidently the borer breeds more rapidly in dead or newly-felled 

 trunks than in living plants, and therefore many other centres of 

 contamination occur besides diseased cofEee plants. Of some hundred 

 trees and shrubs examined, about a dozen can be classed as very 

 favourable to the multiplication of the borer, while another 20 are 

 chosen in the absence of preferred food-plants. Further examinations 

 will be made. Bamboos are seldom attacked when green, and when 

 dry are rejected in most cases for other plants. Teak and Gardenia 

 seem to be the favourite cultivated plants. Pending the completion 

 of a list of food-plants, it is considered unwise to make fences, etc., 

 of wood that might be infested by this borer, or even to keep such 

 wood in bundles, without treating it with Stockholm tar or coal-tar. As 

 regards the various trees used to provide shade for cofEee bushes in 



